A friend from Donetsk, Ukraine, who served in the Russian army in Chechnya told me that he captured a Black American ex-serviceman who was working for what they called back then the "Khattabists".Wow. No kidding. That is fascinating.
The Soviet Union is gone, however, and there are scarier animals in the woods these days.
So true.
Also I was going to comment on those women at passport kontrol at Sheremetyov, down in the dark dungeon there, in reference to your link. Geeze, do you think they ever smiled? Even at home? I will never forget their faces. Always the same every time I was there.
Now that looks like a good movie. I'll go make popcorn.
About your dog comment in Freepmail - strays are a big pain throughout the former Soviet bloc. Slavs just can't bear to shoot 'em, and the grannies keep feeding them so there are more and more. Nothing more pleasant on a summer evening - when it's too hot to close the windows - than twenty or thirty strays out in the courtyard putting on a kontsert for the neighborhood. Slavs can be crazy about pets.